According to the findings, the incumbent BJP, which has already ruled Gujarat continuously for 27 years barring a brief revolt by Shankar Singh Vaghela, is projected win between 128 and 140 seats in the 182-member Assembly.
The first phase of the polling -- held on December 1, witnessed a low turnout of voters. Chief Electoral Officer P. Bharathi said that in 93 seats, there are 2,51,58,730 voters in 14,975 polling centres.
The voting is being held across 14,382 polling stations, of which 3,311 are in the urban and 11,071 in rural areas, the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing a petitioner, raised the issue in connection with the appointment of Goel. He said Goel was a sitting Secretary, was given voluntary retirement on Friday, the appointment was issued on Saturday, and on Monday, he started working as EC.
Goel, a retired IAS officer from Punjab Cadre of the 1985 batch, was appointed to the post by President Droupadi Murmu on November 19
The Election Commission of India (EC) announced on October 14 the dates for the upcoming assembly elections in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
The Commission also banned sarees, shirts as gifts during rallies.
Shiv Sena leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has moved the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the order of the Election Commission to freeze the party's bow and arrow symbol.
It said that neither of the two groups led by Eknath Shinde and other led by Uddhav Thackeray be permitted to use the name of the party "Shiv Sena" and neither of the two groups shall also be permitted to use the symbol "Bow & Arrow", reserved for "Shiv Sena".
Currently, political parties have to disclose all donations above Rs 20,000 through their contribution report that is submitted to the EC.
It is not clear whether Soren has also been disqualified from contesting elections.
As per the poll schedule, notification for the President election will be issued on June 15 and the last day of filing nomination will be June 29.
The Trinamool Congress state general secretary and the party spokesman, Kunal Ghosh tried to downplay the incident claiming that the entire incident took place due to some misunderstanding.
The EC clarified that it does not have the power to deregister a political party, except on three grounds, which were outlined by the top court in the case of the Indian National Congress Vs the Institute of Social Welfare and others (2002).
The poll panel also said that the decision came after the numbers of both active and new COVID-19 cases have been receding and the restrictions put in place both by the Central Government and State Governments to check the spread of pandemic are being lifted or relaxed gradually.
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